Show Notes

Transcription

Steve: Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us again. Thank you for joining for today’s show. Today we got Matthew Potter, the short sale king of Arizona, and we’re gonna talk about how Matt went from a short sale processor, getting all the 1% of what, like my $30,000 short sales-

Matthew: Yeah, that is correct, yes-

Steve: … Yeah, so $300 per transactions, and how you were able to roll that out to this big time producer, so in 2017 you did over 100 transactions for 23 million in sales volume.

Matthew: Yes, yes.

Steve: So before we talk about that, I just wanted to share, we started this show because we want to give back to our community. We’ve struggled before, you know-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: … and we had a lot of issues when we started, and what we want to do is kind of share our lessons so we can shortcut the struggle for a lot of the young business leaders out there. And so all I ask is if you get value out of the show, tell a friend. Either share this episode or tell a friend or tell a takeaway or a lesson that you got from this episode. Talk about the show, basically, you know, to help out as many people as we can.

Steve: And don’t forget, this is live Q&A, so I got this all up in our Facebook page, so if you’ve got questions for Mr. Potter, post them here and I’ll be happy to get them answered for you.

Steve: So, now that we’re getting started, so let’s talk about, why real estate? How did you get into this business?

Matthew: So, super crazy story on that. I was actually going to school to be an elementary school teacher. You know, the whole passion-

Steve: Really?

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Wow.

Matthew: Thank God I ultimately changed the direction there, and I was studying under Dr. Butler over at ASU, Dr. Jay Butler, one of my biggest mentors before even getting into real estate, and ultimately I was going through that, got my degree, and right when I got my degree was when the market just started tanking. The banks were going out of business or being absorbed, all that.

Matthew: So I went for an interview at a company, it was a short sale company up in Scottsdale. Like you said, one … well actually, that one wasn’t 1%, we had a little bit more there, but ultimately, myself, my wife, we didn’t get more, and I was hired on the spot, started doing short sales, next thing I knew, three or four months later, I’m closing 10, 15 of them a month, and I’m like, “All right.”

Matthew: That’s actually where I ended up meeting my wife. We broke off, started our own company, kind of went from there, and then what was it, 2013 I think it was, yeah, we went ahead and branched into full-time real estate, everything, short sales, buyers, sellers, investment, flips, all of it.

Matthew: So it’s definitely been a crazy, crazy ride. Nicole and I always sit there and we’re like, “Wow, it’s been 10 years.” It doesn’t feel like 10 years. It feels like it’s been like three or four years. So, it’s really crazy, but that was ultimately my route to real estate.

Steve: That’s so funny. I actually wanted to be a teacher too actually. It’s one of the things I wanted to be, but it just doesn’t make enough financial sense.

Matthew: That was my main struggle where I was like, I’m not gonna be able to support myself, right?

Steve: And that’s how we met, because I would be the short sale expert and I would get the listing, and then I would say, “Matt, you need to process this short sale for me.”

Matthew: Yes, and I would be the expert behind the scenes, you were the expert in front of the curtain-

Steve: Right.

Matthew: … we’re Wizard of Oz behind the scenes.

Steve: It was win, win, win for everybody.

Matthew: Absolutely.

Steve: Okay, so what struggles did you face when you got started?

Matthew: Getting our name out there, getting our brand out there. Getting people to trust us. Back then, when the market was just absolute, you know, it was pretty well bottomed out, homes are, like you said, $30,000, it’s hard for me to go to an agent and be like, “Hey look, by the way, I need to take like, you know, about 33% of your paycheck, but you’re gonna get a paycheck if you trust me and trust us and we’ll get it done.”

Matthew: And I mean, that’s a hard sell when a lot of people aren’t making any money. I mean, I remember when I sat down with you. We went to … well, originally it was over at your old brokerage, and then we went to lunch too and you were like, “Okay, look, I can see the value in this. Let’s make this happen.” And I’m like, “Okay,” and all of a sudden, you started getting much more consistent paychecks, and Nicole and I ultimately, you know, we could put a roof over our head at the time.

Steve: It’s a lot easier paying someone a third, and making sure that I didn’t have to do anything-

Matthew: Exactly.

Steve: … versus having to slam my head against the wall dealing with that.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: So what other struggles did you face when you first got licensed?

Matthew: When I first got licensed, it was a totally different dynamic at that point because we were known as short sale processors and negotiators … whatever words you want to use.

Steve: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Matthew: And all of a sudden, it’s hey, by the way, we’re not just doing that, we can run with your short sale, we can do the whole thing. By the way, help us help you sell your house, buy a house, things like that, and it’s even with anybody that ever changes a career path, there’s struggles. It takes time. And luckily, we had the foundation there, and a lot of our agent partners that we know, not just here, in other parts of the country too, they were our big support system.

Matthew: They’re like, “Yeah, you know, we trust them 100%. They’re gonna give it to you real. You’re going to ultimately be happy and satisfied.” So, we started listing property. We started helping buyers buy property, and then from there we just kind of started growing and helping more and more people and getting more referrals, which … that was pretty awesome.

Steve: It is, definitely. Okay, so knowing what you know today, what would you do differently when you started?

Matthew: Oh, yes. My wife’s probably smiling right now as I say this. I should’ve taken her advice and done what we did sooner.

Steve: Which is-

Matthew: Convert from just the short sale processing side and open up the other avenues of helping buyers, helping sellers, not just short sale sales.

Steve: Oh, so you’re talking about traditional real estate.

Matthew: Correct.

Steve: You should have gotten licensed sooner?

Matthew: Should have gotten licensed sooner-

Steve: That’s a smart woman.

Matthew: … She is. There’s a reason that I married her. Well, there’s several, but that’s one of them.

Matthew: That’s probably the biggest thing is I would have just started sooner, because there was fear that holds you back of, oh god, I’m not gonna have quote unquote “normal” steady paycheck. Well, we didn’t have a normal steady paycheck anyways, but the way we were structured, we did, so it was kind of like you felt a false sense of security, and it’s like, take off the water wings, jump in the deep end, let’s just go for it.

Steve: Right. And you guys made a massive impact. So, what would you say is your superpower?

Matthew: I don’t know. Being able to bang my head against the wall with short sales and not have lost all my brain cells. I guess probably the biggest thing is being able to put together the puzzle as well as still realizing that there is a human component with it. It’s not like a bank sale or an REO sale. Everybody that we help, I mean, everybody has a different story, and nobody’s story’s exactly the same, although a lot of them fall in the same box.

Matthew: So I think a lot of it is you’re sitting there and you’re looking at it, okay, I still have to be compassionate, but at the same time, I have to use the numbers side of my brain with the bank, because the bank ultimately at the end of the day, they have no compassion. They don’t care.

Steve: No.

Matthew: They’re not getting paid, they don’t care. They’re like, that’s great that your spouse passed away a year ago, sorry, we’re gonna foreclose on you next month and we’re kind of the final line of trying to get that to stop.

Steve: Right. And then, I mean, there’s a lot of partnerships in this industry-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: … maybe in general, but definitely for sure in this industry, real estate partnerships, and they generally don’t work, right?

Matthew: True.

Steve: They fall apart. It’s more the rule than the exception.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: So let’s talk about some of the challenges you guys had and how you guys overcame those challenges.

Matthew: This is a thing that’s actually very interesting. Nicole and I talk about this. We actually were almost at a point where we had the mindset of, if you’re not in your desk making your phone calls, you’re not ultimately gonna perform.

Matthew: Nicole was like, “Look, I get my job done,” ’cause she kinda handled the closing aspect of it, I handled the negotiation side of it. And we butted heads really, really bad about this. This was actually prior to us ever being in a personal relationship. It got so bad to the point that we were about to throw our hands up and just be like, “Nope, we’re done. We’re absolutely done. You go do what you do, I’ll go do what I do.”

Matthew: But then you have to sit there and you have to take a step back and you have to look at it. Am I as strong on my own as I am in this partnership? Like, if we break this apart, are we still going to be successful? And it’s a resounding no. We both know that. Cooler heads generally prevailed, and it’s kind of one of those things, like even when you were working with us on the processing side, you liked working with Marissa.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Marissa’s amazing.

Steve: Everybody loves working with Marissa.

Matthew: Yes. She was amazing.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: Then on the flip side of that, you like working with me. You liked working with Nicole because Nicole generally was the one who was like, “By the way, it’s closed, you’re getting paid.”

Steve: Nicole is always the deliverer of good news.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Short sale’s approved.

Matthew: Nicole never gave you bad news. I was the guy that was like, “Eh, see what had happened was…” And you were like, “No, I don’t want to talk to you.”

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So we looked at it, and the sum of everybody together, it’s a huge strength, and agents don’t want to work with just me or just Nicole or just Marissa, it was all of us, you know, like Captain Planet, our powers combined.

Matthew: So, that was probably the biggest struggle, is at the end of the day, we’re one team, one dream. We’re all trying to go towards the same common goal, but ultimately, we may all think a different way to get there, and that was kind of the biggest thing where it’s not necessarily my way was right, her way was right, it was kind of a culmination of both of our ways, and it ultimately got us to where we wanted to be and where we’re at right now.

Steve: Right. And I think, you know, looking at your guys’ relationship from the outside, it looks like you’re really good at shaking the tree, just making things happen.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Right? And Nicole is really good at making the clients happy-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: … and having them refer you business.

Matthew: Exactly.

Steve: So talk about her role in that.

Matthew: Well, this was the great thing about kind of that circle, and even the circle today for that matter, is we were always very referral based. When we started out our company, we had three transactions for a total of like $1200, and we had like $130,000 loan that was hanging out there. And I’m like, this is not a good business plan at all. This is a horrible idea.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: We knew that it would take about six months to build the business and things like that, and I would work on generating referrals. Nicole would work on generating referrals. Marissa would, everybody would work on it.

Matthew: The great thing was, Nicole’s job was perfectly primed for asking for them or, “Hey, do you have new files?” Even buyers agents, ’cause we would always include buyer’s agents on the communication, because they may end up having a listing that they need help with. We actually got a lot of business that way.

Matthew: So, once she got everything done, it’s like three days later, her and I would get an email, “Hey, thanks so much. By the way, my friend in my office has a short sale and she’s banging her head against the wall. Will you guys help?”

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So it was perfect because it was kind of, everybody did their applicable part, thus the referrals started coming in and we went from the three transactions to I think there was one month, I just remember it was a December, which is traditionally a horrible month in real estate, and we ended up closing something like 67 transactions that month. And people were like, “What? You realize it’s December, nobody’s moving.” I’m like, “Well, if the bank says you have to close, you’re gonna move. You kind of have to.”

Steve: Right, or is no longer approved.

Matthew: Exactly. Or hey, by the way, you’re getting foreclosed on on January 3rd. Happy new year, so … it was like, all right, we gotta go.

Matthew: So that’s kinda how we built our business, and now it feeds into where we’re at now, where a lot of our business is referral. It’s referral from other agents, past clients. The funny thing is, even escrow officers that we worked with back then, I got a Facebook message the other day. “Hey, my sister needs to buy a property. I’m referring her to you and Nicole because you guys are awesome,” whatever-

Steve: That’s awesome.

Matthew: … and I’m like, I was like, “Oh, okay.” Now mind you, she’s down in Casa Grande, I don’t do a ton of business in Casa Grande, but it was cool that she remembered us for that specific area and I was like, “Heck yeah. Yeah, we’re totally fine helping her out.” And she’s like, “Awesome, I know she’s in good hands with you guys, with the way that you guys always handled everything on the short sale side.”

Matthew: So it’s cool to see that because that’s like five, six years since the last time we did a transaction-

Steve: Yeah, no definitely gotta be memorable if that’s happening. So, Max has a question. There’s someone out there advertising, “Stop doing short sales the old way.” Have you ever heard this?

Matthew: No I haven’t.

Steve: Hm, yeah, I don’t know what that’s about.

Matthew: Hey Max, what’s going on buddy?

Steve: Okay, so I think you kind of talked about it a little bit, but let’s just discuss this a little bit more. Why short sales?

Matthew: Why did we initially get into it or why do we still focus on it now?

Steve: Yeah, the evolution, right? So why’d you start in it and then why are you still doing it?

Matthew: Started in it because it was either that or we were gonna have to work for the bank as REO agents. I mean, those were kind of your two options at that point. Or fly to New York, get yourself a hedge fund buyer, which that still wasn’t for two, three years until that happened.

Matthew: So more than anything, it was kind of out of necessity at the very beginning, but the thing is, my wife is super analytical. She is. She’s got an analytical brain. I do as well. I’m the product of two engineers, so I’m fairly normal, all things considered-

Steve: Except for the ADD?

Matthew: You know, it is a thing. That being said, it’s putting together a giant puzzle for us, where I like that. Other people, “Ugh, I don’t want to even consider doing that. I just want to focus on this.” I’m like, “No, give me that. The more complicated, the more fun, in my opinion.”

Matthew: So, I am slightly nuts. And ultimately, once 2013 rolled around and we activated our real estate licenses, writing was on the wall. We’re starting to get some appreciation in the market, short sale market’s gonna start to dry up a little bit, and it was one of those things where people knew our name, they knew our brand, they knew that we would close short sales … whether they had been a buyer’s agent on one or they’d seen what we did, all of a sudden it was, well, I want to work the traditional side of real estate, which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I still don’t want to just leave somebody hanging, so they started referring them to us, and that’s how we kind of stayed with a real nice baseline of doing short sales.

Steve: So, you have 178 reviews on Zillow.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: What was the strategy, what was the process? Let’s just start with why, why Zillow? Because when you started, I remember I was telling you, “Screw Zillow, they’re terrible people.”

Matthew: Yes you did.

Steve: So, you went ahead and ignored your broker’s advice, and it’s obviously put out dividends for you. So let’s talk about that.

Matthew: It’s helped a little bit. So we did get a little bit lucky with Zillow. We actually did, and I’ll get to that part of it.

Matthew: More than anything, at the time, Red Fin was still kind of in its infancy doing its thing, Trulia was a separate brand at that point, you had Realtor.com, but nobody really went to it. Zillow was all the rage. It’s where everybody went. And I remember we were starting and terrified of the payment on this for impressions, or that’s what they call them. It was something like $420 a month or something like that, and I’m like, “Oh god, that’s a lot of money.” I’m like, “We can’t afford to do this. We can’t.”

Matthew: And Nicole’s kind of looking at it and she’s like, “You know, that’s a pretty healthy budget.” So we pulled the trigger and we went for it. And luckily, because we started listing a lot of short sales and ultimately friends started buying homes, selling homes, things like that, we started getting a lot of contacts off of that because of what was known as an exclusive listing, which was our information would be the only information that would show up.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So we started getting a lot of contacts, way more contacts than Nicole and I could ever handle. So, we ended up expanding our team to help make sure that people that are contacting us are getting taken care of.

Matthew: But from there, we ultimately got grandfathered in, because one of the things is, there are times that I will procrastinate. Zillow reps would call, “Hey, we want to sell you more impressions,” and you know, you get into a little bit better spot and you’re like, “Oh, okay, I could spend that, I could spend that. No problem.”

Matthew: Well, I kept kind of putting it on the back burner, so we’re set up with 25 exclusive listings on Zillow, which is great because that means only our contact information’s in front of those 25 listings. So, they’re gonna contact us and reach out to us, and from there, it’s kind of mushroomed and exploded, and it’s made us go from mom and pop shop to hey, you know, we have three other agents on our team, a couple transaction coordinators. We got a nice little solid team.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: From there, a lot of people contact us off Zillow. We work with a lot of them, and we ultimately close a lot of them. So I definitely know the mentality back then was, “Oh no, most of these people are lookie-loos,” and I’m like, well, if you’re looking for a house, Zillow’s the biggest website right now, there’s probably a good chance you’re gonna start there before you do anything else. They’re gonna contact someone, it might as well be you. At least get your foot in the door before maybe they go to their mother’s brother’s uncle’s cousin or go call somebody off a sign.

Steve: So I know one of the challenges that some of these agents have is getting the reviews.

Matthew: Literally what we do, and there’s some people that will review us, there’s some people that won’t review us. Some people aren’t reviewers.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Once a transaction’s closed, whether it’s a buy side, sell side, we always like to try to follow up. We get them on a follow-up schedule, and generally we’re calling them or seeing them in person several times a year.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: Once it closes, literally just send them a nice little email, you know, “Congrats on your closing. We hope that you were happy with the service that we provided. Would you take a couple minutes to write a review for us on Zillow? If you don’t, my broker will fire me.” So, no, I really don’t put that part in there.

Matthew: That’s literally what we do. And I would say out of every 10 that we send out of that, I’d say probably eight will review us. Like I said, there’s always a couple that just aren’t going to-

Steve: So you’re like a debt collector then on those other two? What are you doing?

Matthew: No, honestly, I’ll forward over an email again and I’ll give a phone call and just be like, “Hey, I just wanted to see if you had a chance to read my email. I just wanted to see if you had time to do a review and make sure ultimately you were happy with everything.”

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Because generally somebody’s not going to give you a review, especially since it literally takes two minutes … maybe there was something you were unaware of during the process, and if there was something that they weren’t happy with, well let us know so that we can try to make it right for you.

Matthew: So, generally, if they haven’t done it after I’ve talked to them a couple times, I’m like, you know what, they’re just not a reviewer, it’s not a big deal. I’m not gonna sit there and show up at their door and be like, “Hey, by the way, I’ve already logged on, I’ve created a username for you, can you go ahead and do it?”

Steve: I mean, it’s not a bad thing, so … Let’s see. So Facebook. I would say you’re doing a lot of business from Facebook-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: … and I would say also that you’re every broker’s nightmare-

Matthew: I appreciate that.

Steve: … I think it’s either every month or every other month I say, “Hey Matt, knock it off.” Or, “Maybe you shouldn’t say those things.”

Steve: And in many ways, you’re like a young Russell Shaw, so let’s talk about that. What’s your strategy?

Matthew: To be fair, it is on my personal page though.

Steve: As a real estate agent, are there really personal pages?

Matthew: No, there’s not, because I keep everything public.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: The thing that I’ve actually found about it is it appears most people appreciate it. My wife and I always joke around, we’re REAL-tors, you know, all caps, REAL. Because at the end of the day, connecting with people is the most important thing. It is. On whatever level. You can’t just sit there and cram real estate down their throat 24/7 and expect them to reach out to you.

Matthew: So we like to do a nice mixture of literally everything in our lives that goes on. Family, school, business, funny stuff, not so funny stuff, things that are debatable-

Steve: Yes, debatable.

Matthew: … Yes, I’ve had a couple statuses that have had over 400 comments on them, and I’m like, yeesh, kinda broke the Facebook button on that one today.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: But yeah, more than anything, and this is the thing that’s kinda cool, is … and in no way whatsoever am I saying one way is right and one way is wrong. More often than not, all of our clients, even if it’s somebody that we met and I’ve only known them a couple weeks and been working with them, I add them as a friend on Facebook.

Steve: Really?

Matthew: I do. The reason why is ultimately at the end of the day, I want them to see that it’s not a show when I’m out with them, that I do like to have fun, I like to goof around. Yes, I have serious moments as well. My wife would probably like me to have a couple more serious moments-

Steve: Oh yeah.

Matthew: … but it is what it is. But, I like them to know that, look, you didn’t pay an admission to a show. This is how I am, this is how my family is, this is how my kids are, the dogs, I mean, everything down to the turtles and, I don’t know, I think we have a fish or … oh no, that’s right, my wife said that I can buy a snake. I’m just kidding. She didn’t.

Matthew: So we actually get tagged in a lot of people’s post about, you know, “Hey, I’m looking for a realtor. I might want to buy.” We’ll get tagged four or five times by mutual friends. The next thing I know there’s a message. I would say generally probably once a week either an agent or a friend, friend of a friend on Facebook reaches out via messenger and is like, “Hey, wanted to see if you could help out. Can you help out?” And it’s, “Yeah, sure. Let me know a time that we can talk, and then let me know a time that we can sit down.”

Matthew: Like, a friend of mine from high school, she reached out to me on messenger yesterday. I’m sitting down with her tomorrow at 11:00AM, we’re gonna discuss what we can do to help her out.

Steve: Awesome.

Matthew: So, Facebook, it’s a great tool if you leverage it.

Steve: If you leverage it correctly. And you do a really good job. You get tremendous engagement. There are some things I’m like, why does this have 100 comments?

Matthew: Yes. Blue cheese, yes or no? I had like 146 comments on that, and Nicole was like, “No, no.” And I’m like, “The answer is yes.”

Steve: The answer is no.

Matthew: The answer is yes though.

Steve: I will get up right now. All right, right now the rage is wholesale and flipping, that’s obviously part of our movement, the real estate disruptors, and we’re trying to create this marriage between traditional realtors and flipping and wholesaling.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: So obviously you’ve gotten into this game very recently as well, so some people might wonder, how are you finding your opportunities and deals?

Matthew: I’m in a unique position. I think I can say that for most of my life.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: Especially with a lot of short sales, a lot of investors, wholesalers, things like that, they’ll actually refer them over to us, and they’re like, “Hey, this person needs help. We want to try to give them a solution. Can you go ahead and work the short sale?” Yeah, sure. Talk to them, get everything lined up and we go ahead and go from there.

Matthew: The one thing that I’ve learned is everybody’s numbers are different in this world with wholesales, flips, things like that. There’s some people that are very, very conservative with their numbers, there’s other people that are very, very liberal with their numbers, and I’m like, wow, okay, yeah sure. If that’s what you want to pay, yeah, that’ll work.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So that is one of the sources of business is actually our short sales. That being said, we’ll never personally purchase our own short sales because that’s a serious conflict of interest for us. I’m not gonna do that to a homeowner where it’s like, “Hey, they’ll accept our offer, but by the way, the bank needs you to bring $5000 to closing.” Like, that’s just not right.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So, like I said, a lot of times investors bring us things like that. The other thing is, attorneys, landscapers, other agents. We had another agent actually call us and was like, “What do you think about this property?” He’s like, “This is the price I want.” And I’m like, “Deal done. Don’t even need to see it.”

Steve: So you think that being short sale king leads you to other opportunities because of the relationships you’ve created being in short sales.

Matthew: Yes. Bingo. That’s what it is. At the end of the day, this is a relationship-based business. It is. The larger your sphere, the larger amount of opportunities that you’re gonna have. It’s literally that simple. If you know three people, well you’re only gonna be able to help three people. If you know 3000 people and they all know 100 people each, you’re gonna be busy for a while.

Steve: You can get a lot further. And so that kind of goes onto my next point, because you are, you know, you’re still the number one guy for short sales in Arizona-

Matthew: Yes indeed.

Steve: … all right, so congratulations on keeping that crown.

Matthew: Thank you, thank you.

Steve: But we were also laughing, we were like, it’s not even a third of your business.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: So, let’s talk about how you leveraged short sales to do 100 transactions last year.

Matthew: Well, it really is kind of a funny thing when you sit there and look at it, because if you look at most agent’s business back in ’09, 2010, 2011, it was short sales or REOs.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: I mean, it really was. Nobody had equity. Even if your home was paid off, you didn’t have equity. Then all of a sudden, people’s numbers started to morph. When we first came in, I mean, we were 65ish percent short sales, and then a couple other things here and there.

Matthew: Now, yes, we’re number one for short sales in Arizona, and we still crank out 20 to 30 a year, which you know, it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is a lot when you-

Steve: It’s still a lot.

Matthew: … it’s a lot, it is. But the rest of it has kind of been one of those things where word has gotten out. Let’s go ahead and you know, hey, let’s buy a home, let’s sell a home.

Matthew: The other thing that’s super cool for us is a lot of the people that we helped with short sales, they’re starting to cycle through now as being able to buy again-

Steve: That’s nice.

Matthew: … and that’s where we’re getting business too. Like our good friend Henry, he’s ready to buy right now.

Steve: Is that … let’s see. I got a Ryan O’Shea Duggins-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Is that Henry’s son?

Matthew: No, no, no, no. Ryan, do you remember … there was a property-

Steve: Over in Glendale-

Matthew: … it was in Glendale, and I had contacted you and I said, “Look, I need you to buy this house at this number.”

Steve: Right.

Matthew: And you were like, “I don’t like that number.” I’m like, “But if you buy it at this number, we’re good, everything’s done, we’re free and clear.” And you were like, “Ah, yes. Okay-”

Steve: Then I’m good with that number.

Matthew: “I’m good with that number.” And I’m like, “Excellent, excellent.” So, that’s another opportunity. Networking, right there.

Steve: Cool, all right, so, what’s up, Ryan? So, that’s cool.

Matthew: Hey, hey, Ryan.

Steve: All right, so the other thing was you’ve gone through this whole process, what’s the greatest you’ve learned from … and this isn’t even limited to just real estate. What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned?

Matthew: Oh man. Oh, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. I’ve learned a lot of lessons. Life will come at you fast, you better be prepared for it. Things can change at any given moment. Perfect example, cruising along in business, all of a sudden, Nicole and I started dating, a couple kids, you know, she had a couple kids, all of a sudden, boom, she’s pregnant. We have Cooper now. Boom, she’s pregnant again. Unfortunately, we lost Noah back in September. And then final boom, she’s pregnant right now with Olivia, so literally in the last, what is that, four years I think we’ve been together … yeah, it’s gotta be four years-

Steve: You move fast.

Matthew: Yeah wow.

Steve: I’m not sure it’s life moving fast, I think it might just be a Matt thing.

Matthew: It might be a … It’s the ADD thing. You know, it’s one of those where, just know that life’s gonna give you its purpose when the time is right. Honestly, if Nicole and I at the very beginning, when we knew each other, if we would have tried to go into a personal relationship, I think we would’ve survived, but I think there would have been a lot more heartache, headache, struggles in business, personal life, things like that.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: From the real estate side of it, anything can happen at any given moment. Literally like that, it will change, what’s the quote? In a New York minute-

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: … things can change like that, where oh god, where’s my next transaction gonna come from? Maybe you haven’t been working your lead sources as hard as you’re supposed to, to you get a phone call where, “Hey, by the way, I’m relocating from California. I need to buy a primary and three rental properties.” And you’re like, “Okay, and I’m back on the grind.”

Steve: Yeah, let me clear my calendar real quick.

Matthew: Yeah, you just let me know when you’re gonna be in town.

Steve: So what great lesson are you learning right now?

Matthew: To enjoy it all. As corny as that is, to enjoy it all enjoy the highs, enjoy the lows. At any given moment, your business can be stripped from you.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: It can. Anything can happen. I know agents that have made foolish decisions, and literally their licenses were revoked, and it’s all gone now for them. I just sit there and I look at it realistically, like where I am in my life with everything, my wife, my kids, my family, my parents, our real estate investment, just everything, like in no way whatsoever do I want real estate stripped from me tomorrow or for everything to change and everybody be like, “Oh no, don’t ever use Matt to buy a house or sell a house,” it’s nice to have the foundation there, and to truly enjoy it.

Matthew: That’s the thing, kinda like I was telling you, I let all of our potential clients, like, come on, enjoy our life on Facebook because ultimately I really do enjoy, I enjoy my life a lot. Yeah, there’s days I’m stressed. You’re tried, you’re grouchy, you’re pissed, whatever. That’s just life in general. But at the end of the day, I’m like, “Wow, I got a lot to be thankful and grateful for.”

Steve: For sure, and I think that’s something that experiencing growing up, being an immigrant, having both of my parents work 60, 70, 80 hours a week, I never got to have Dad come to the basketball game or whatever, and so for me, I try to remember that, to be present with the kids, with the family, just as much as you can.

Steve: Now, we’re not perfect-

Matthew: No, no, you never are because-

Steve: … but we do the best we can.

Matthew: … Here’s the perfect example. Our daughter, she had a three night Peter Pan play thing-

Steve: Okay, that sounds fantastic.

Matthew: … I don’t know, yeah, she’s in … I don’t even remember what class this was. Maybe it’s just a play, I don’t know. First night, ultimately, we couldn’t attend. And you know, opening night jitters and all that, I was like, she’s gonna be like, “Oh, I was terrible.”

Matthew: Second night, my mother-in-law came over and with Cooper, I mean, I love my little dude, he’s amazing, but man, he’s a handful, and you try to take him there, he’s gonna be, doing-doing-doing-doing, bouncing all over the place. So, Nicole and my mother-in-law went and saw the play, came home, showed me videos and pictures and all that.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: I could tell … I can read my daughter like a book. She was sad that I wasn’t there. And I’m like, “Oh god, that cuts me to my core right now.” I’m like, okay, I had a closing that Friday. I had to do the closing. Nicole had an appointment at 5:00PM, it was just a whole thing. And this thing started at 7:00.

Matthew: Luckily, Nicole got home literally at 6:45. I’m hopping in the car, I drove there, got there, snuck in, and then after the show, she’s got this look on her face. She’s like, “Oh my god.” And I’m like, “I told you if it was possible, I would come. Sometimes things come up, but I really did want to be here.” So she was super excited about that, and then five minutes later, she’s like, “Can I go spend the night at my friend’s house.” And I’m like, there we go, perfect.

Steve: Yeah, she’s still a teenager.

Matthew: Of course.

Steve: So, Max has a question. So besides business processes, would you consider your network your biggest asset, and what are you doing to keep leveraging that network?

Matthew: Well, actually you and I had a conversation about this, staying in front of people. You have to do it continually. It’s something you can never slack on it. You can’t. People have to know what you do. There’s times I’m sure people are tired. They’re like, “Oh god, yeah, okay, you sold a house. Good job.” Or, “Oh yeah, okay, short sales.” But people need to know that because if they don’t know, what you don’t know, you don’t know. They’re not gonna call you. They’re not gonna text you. They’re not gonna email you.

Steve: It’s not their job to keep you top of mind.

Matthew: Exactly. It’s not. And ultimately, it’s no different than … Look at it this way. If you were making 1000 phone calls a day and getting 10 contacts out of that and listing one home every single day, you’re doing amazing things-

Steve: Having a great life.

Matthew: … yeah. Like you’re doing really, really solid. If you take four months off from that, I can guarantee you, you are not doing the same exact thing every single day. You’re not just listing a property every single day, unless your referral game is super strong.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: So, using your network, like I’ve worked with Max before. Max has sent me referrals. I actually helped him get a property. Nicole and I helped him get a property as well. He did nice and solid on it and that makes me happy.

Matthew: If I’d never met Max, the likelihood of any of that ever occurring is not going to occur. And I have you to thank for that actually.

Steve: Yeah, no, he was a great ISA until you left me.

Matthew: Yeah, I know.

Steve: Jerk.

Matthew: Yeah, I kind of miss him. Max, let’s have lunch, buddy.

Steve: All right, so how has failure shaped your life?

Matthew: Well, fail: First attempt in learning. It’s that simple, because if you fail at something, it’s not that’s the end, it’s you’ve found the way that doesn’t work. Go find the way that does work.

Matthew: I’m gonna be honest with you. The first time I ever did a short sale, I did not have a clue what the hell I was doing. Literally they’re like, call Wells Fargo, and call … My first transaction I ever did was Wells Fargo on the first mortgage, Wilshire on the second. Wilshire is not around anymore in case you didn’t know that. And I’ll never forget this guy. The property was in Florida, there was a hurricane, a flood, it was just a frigging nightmare.

Matthew: That being said, I failed at least 18 times on that transaction. Literally, there were 18 different buyers that we could have closed with. I didn’t get one of those to stay. Part of that was the market just kept taking a dump. It was, oh okay, we’re under contract at 120. Oh, by the way, the house next door just sold for 40 grand. I’m like, so don’t you want to just buy this one?

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So I think it makes you more resilient as a person. It does. It helps you into a growth mindset, because if you’re not growing, you’re stuck. You’re complacent, which I always want to be growing. I don’t want to just be like, “Oh, okay, I know everything about this topic.” No. You never know everything about a topic. It just never happens.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, that’s one of our core values, right? Growth.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: It’s like, the day you stop learning is the day that you’re just dangerous to everybody around you.

Matthew: Yeah. No, you’ve ultimately thrown in the towel, and yeah, that is a very dangerous mindset of, well, no, I already know this. No. No, you don’t know anything, because it can all change the next day.

Steve: Chet loves that comment, “First attempt in learning.”

Steve: Okay, so, what book have you read that everybody should read?

Matthew: Am I allowed to cuss on this thing?

Steve: Officially, we have this as a clean show on iTunes. I submitted everything as clean.

Matthew: Fair enough.

Steve: Oh, but I know what you’re talking about. We just gotta put an apostrophe in there.

Matthew: Yes. You know what book I’m talking about.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: It’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: My amazing broker over here, Steve, decided that he saw this title … didn’t even read anything about the book. Nothing.

Steve: Mm-mm (negative).

Matthew: He saw the title and immediately had it shipped from Amazon to me and my wife. It said, “This book reminds me of you. I don’t even know what this book’s about.”

Matthew: And of course we had a good chuckle about it. Nicole read it first, I read it second, and it’s not necessarily you’re a rogue badass or anything like that. That’s not what the book’s premise is. The book’s premise is, the less you care about the stuff that doesn’t matter, you know, the stupid stuff that doesn’t matter … like at the end of the day, for me, just for me, I wear the same outfit every day. To me, I’m sorry, clothes are clothes. They cover me, great.

Matthew: I don’t really care about that. That doesn’t mean that fashion’s not important, it’s not a part of whatever, but I’m a real guy. I wear a polo shirt and I wear tennis shoes. I’m sorry, I do. To me, that’s one of the things, like, don’t get caught up on that. Get caught up on the important stuff, your family, your kids, your business, helping your clients.

Matthew: Think about it this way. If I had to put on a three piece suit every time I went and showed a home, which we live in Phoenix, so thank God I don’t have to do that-

Steve: Right.

Matthew: … But if I had to do that, especially say there’s a property that’s a hot commodity, and there’s eight other agents that went over there in their flip flops and their t-shirt, and they’ve already spoken to the listing agent and the listing agent said, “Give me an offer at this, you’re good to go,” well, I’ve ultimately hurt my client by being caught up on something that’s ultimately not important.

Steve: Right, for the situation.

Matthew: For the situation, exactly.

Steve: Yeah. And my favorite part, my favorite chapter in that book was when he talked about going to Russia.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: He was talking about boy, you want to see directness, go visit Russia.

Matthew: Yeah.

Steve: I’ve had no visit in going to visit Russia. After reading that book, I was like, well maybe we want to go check it out, see how direct and real-

Matthew: I’m gonna be honest with you, Russia’s not on my bucket list, but then again, there is a certain, like you said, there’s a directness there. There is a legit directness of, this is what it is. No frills.

Steve: Right. Well, no one’s got time to waste.

Matthew: No, they don’t.

Steve: Are we gonna work together or no, we’re not gonna work together? There’s no time for feelings.

Matthew: Well, it’s cold outside, let’s go.

Steve: Yeah. Tim [Reagan’s 00:43:15] got a great question. How do you measure your growth professionally?

Matthew: Wow. All right, Tim. You’re coming with the questions today.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: I guess from that aspect, are we looking at production? Probably like production-

Steve: We’re just gonna go open-ended on this one.

Matthew: Okay, well, yeah we can roll with it. I look at it … I don’t necessarily look at it as a transaction-based thing, I really don’t. I look at it as care that’s been provided to the clients. Are we helping more people? Are more people happy with our service? How are they reacting to working with us? Also, are we getting more referrals? Because usually referrals are a real good litmus test of whether or not you’re doing well for your clients or your clients really don’t like you, and well, okay whatever, we picked this guy, we gotta use somebody. All right, we signed our closing docs-

Steve: Yeah. He showed up. He’s breathing.

Matthew: … yeah, all right, thanks for the keys. See you later.

Steve: Yeah, I think that’s a great point, ’cause I think there’s two measures we could look at. We could look at their reviews-

Matthew: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Steve: … Are they giving us five star reviews? If they’re giving us five star reviews, we’re doing things right.

Matthew: Yup.

Steve: And the second thing I think is through referrals.

Matthew: Yeah.

Steve: There’s no greater vote of confidence than referrals.

Matthew: And this is the other thing that’s funny about the reviews. I’ve only gotten one bad review on Zillow, which this is the funny thing to me. At first, I was super upset about it, and I was like, “You know what? Everybody gets a bad review every now and then.” Like, Hollywood movies, not everybody’s gonna love a Hollywood movie, even if it’s critically acclaimed. They’re not.

Matthew: So I was like, you know what? It is what it is. I had one bad one. And then ironically enough, she actually updated it like three days later to a five star review-

Steve: Oh.

Matthew: … but here was the kicker, Zillow took that review down, and they left up the one star. I was like, I’m not even gonna fight it. It’s not even worth it.

Steve: Yeah. So, what have you done that everybody should do?

Matthew: Well, I can’t say marry my wife, so-

Steve: I mean, if we move to Utah, I think-

Matthew: Nope, nope, we’re not going down that road. God, I don’t know. I wouldn’t say I’ve really done anything that is, I don’t know, that spectacular or … I don’t know. I guess go on vacation. There we go. Everybody needs to go on vacation. It doesn’t matter. At least once a year, go on vacation. Do it, Steve.

Steve: That’s a big number. That’s a major commitment.

Matthew: Hey, Nicole and I are going on, well, technically two vacations this year.

Steve: That’s a major commitment.

Matthew: It’s for like three days.

Steve: Why do you think most people fail?

Matthew: Fear.

Steve: Yeah?

Matthew: Honestly, it’s fear. At the end of the day, I was taught by one of my other mentors, who actually we’ve helped her buy and sell I think three or four homes now, fear stands for, F, ’cause it’s a clean show … everything’s all real. You start to get into that mindset of, “Oh my god, oh my god. I don’t have a steady paycheck. Crap, my electric bill’s overdue. I need to sell a house now.”

Matthew: That’s what ultimately leads to failure. I really do think that a lot of it is fear. Sometimes it can be fear of success too. I’ve seen that with people before where I’m like, “God, you know, you would kill it in this business. I know you would.” It’s like, they get into it and it’s like they shoot themselves in the foot, and I’m like, “Don’t over complicate a situation.”

Matthew: Ultimately, if your client likes you and they want to work with you, they’re gonna work with you. And the rest of it is just guiding them and making sure that you’re working in their best interest and getting them the best deal possible.

Matthew: So, I would definitely say that fear is the biggest thing that’s gonna drive failure.

Steve: And I think that fear of success is a real thing, ’cause we’ve had some friends that we know that, man, like, they’re hitting their stride, and let’s see how they can screw it up.

Matthew: Yeah.

Steve: It’s so painful to witness, ’cause they feel like they don’t deserve it in some matter or another.

Matthew: I don’t know if it’s like a subconscious thing, maybe it’s something from an upbringing or something like that, but all of a sudden, they’re like, you know, you’re just getting there and it’s like, oh man, I can see what you’re about to do and I’m excited for you, and then it’s like, “Oh okay, wait, no.” And I’m like, “Why’d you just jump off the cliff? All you had to do was make sure you had your little paraglider thing on and just go.”

Steve: Yeah. So yeah, that’s a very good point. Is there anything that keeps you up at night?

Matthew: Besides the kids?

Steve: Yes, besides the kids.

Matthew: My wife will say definitely not because I lay down in bed and five minutes later I’m asleep-

Steve: Five minutes?

Matthew: Yeah.

Steve: Man, I’m like five seconds.

Matthew: Yeah, well, I pretty much hit the pillow and I’m done. No, because I’ve learned, especially over the last year … Last year, we had a pretty tumultuous up and down year. It was rough. All different types of things with our son, my father, business relationships, I mean, just kind of when it all comes, it all comes at once, and it was just all tearing us in all different directions.

Matthew: I’ve learned, and it took me a long time to get to this point in my life, and this is probably the thing that I’m the most grateful for and happy at this moment, control what is in your control, and what’s out of your control, you have to just let go, let God, your higher power, whatever it may be, let them do their thing. Whatever’s gonna be is gonna be.

Matthew: Now that’s not saying roll over and throw your hands up, “Oh no, you know, I can’t make phone calls anymore.” No, you can make phone calls. You can still work, but it’s ultimately one of those things of what’s gonna happen is gonna happen with regards to certain situations, and you need to not stress or worry about that because the other thing that I’ve learned is, and this was a big lesson that we took away from last year, is there’s others around you that are still depending on you, whether it’s kids, business partners, colleagues, associates, things like that. If you’re stressed, and you’re not able to kind of be the best that you can be, that’s a disservice to everyone around you.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So, nothing really keeps me up at night. I’ve kind of gotten zen mastery with that, except for if I eat too much spicy food right before bed-

Steve: Like Taco Bell. Does that with Taco Bell.

Matthew: Yeah, no.

Steve: But something in there, I think the serenity prayer is one of my favorite sayings, you know?

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: I can’t go off the top of my head right now, but-

Matthew: Oh, I got it if you want it.

Steve: All right, go ahead.

Matthew: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Okay, so how does … so this is a question, is how does a gargoyle like you land a babe? And I really feel like you don’t need to answer this question, because I feel like that was a really strong sales game and it just really speaks to your sales skills, and a long, long, long sales game.

Matthew: Oh yeah, no. I’ve been a salesman since I was nine years old. I started selling used golf balls out of the backyard of my parents’ house. It was .25 cents a ball, five for a dollar.

Matthew: There were some days, hey, there were some days I was making $60 on summer break, but I’m definitely very lucky and blessed that this gargoyle here was able to land such a babe like Nicole.

Steve: Yeah. You are blessed, I can tell you. I mean, she definitely, I don’t know what she was thinking, so-

Matthew: Yeah, I know. I totally duped her on that, and thank God that I did.

Steve: So, Ryan’s got a question for you. What are your feelings on the market turning more towards renting versus buying in certain areas?

Matthew: Well, you are seeing it in some areas where I’ve started to notice some buyers have said, “I don’t see the value in that.” I thinks what the biggest aspect of that is right now is inventory. It’s an inventory thing, and the major reason behind that is builders haven’t been able to acquire and build fast enough. The other aspect of it is, going back to the short sale days, there’s massive hedge funds that are holding on to a lot of property right now.

Matthew: They’re starting to slowly leak some of it out, but it’s mostly the stuff that-

Steve: They’re buying right now too.

Matthew: They’re buying right now too, so I mean, you really have like a catch 22 there.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: It’s not like it was in 2011. I mean, you had nine hedge funds to go choose from. Which one will close in 24 hours?

Steve: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Matthew: But that being said, I think that once rents start to push up a little bit more, the quote unquote, “value” of buying … because I’m working with several buyers right now, where, “Oh, my rent is $2200 a month. I’m gonna buy this house, and it’s $1700 a month,” which $500 a month to me, that, I’m sorry, I see value there. I do. But I think their biggest thing is, and this is one of my biggest gripes probably with our industry is they watch HGTV.

Steve: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Matthew: So they expect everything to look like Joanna Gaines just designed it, or who are the other people … Nate and Jeremiah and the Property Brothers and all that. So, you know, I know way too much about HGTV.

Steve: Yeah, you do. I have no idea who these people are.

Matthew: Yeah, well actually some of them, they’re pretty legit.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s an expectation thing, and one of the things that works really well for us is we’re able to kind of show them, “Look, you can have that and it doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think it does.”

Matthew: You sit there and you look at it like, “Oh my god, this is gonna be $80,000 to remodel this house.” No, it’s actually like $24,000.

Steve: I’ve seen some of the things too that Chet can do on a budget, so-

Matthew: Man, the man works miracles. He does. We’re super lucky and grateful that Chet is on our team, ’cause I’ll call him up, I even call him up for advice on ours. I called him the other day and I’m like, “If it had a backyard that was landscaped, would you have sold it to that lady?” And he was like, “No, but I will tell you this, you need to finish the landscape there.” And I’m like, “Fair enough, I will take your advice.”

Steve: So going back to Ryan’s question, do you have any concerns about the renting and the buying in these certain areas affecting your business model in any way?

Matthew: No. The reason why is ultimately, one way or another, homes are gonna be purchased, whether they’re purchased for rental purposes, whether they’re purchased for owner occupancy, they are. Ultimately, at the end of the day, what’s causing the multiple offer situations, things like that, is literally just a lack of inventory, especially quality inventory.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: A lot of the things that you look at, you’re like, if you drop $40,000 off that price, I will buy it and I will put the money into it, and I will turn around and sell it for this as a quality product. So, that’s kind of one of the things. And again, it goes back to conditioned from HGTV. Everybody sees that, and that’s what they want.

Steve: So one thing I haven’t brought up here, so let me just bring it up here, is one of the reasons I think you guys get so many referrals is ’cause a lot of your transactions, short sales aside-

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: … are seamless.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: And I think part of that has to do with your lender partners and your title partners. Do you want to talk about that?

Matthew: Yes. This is the thing that we are very, very grateful for. When we first started, like I had told you, that magic number was $420 for Zillow, which, dude, that’s like a car payment. Well, especially at the time that was a car payment. That was my first car payment now that I think about it, actually. Eek.

Matthew: An amazing lending partner. I was like, “Look, here’s the deal. Can you help out?” Yeah, no problem. Like not even a question. He believed in us, we believed in him. His business has grown exponentially, our business has grown exponentially. This was the thing that was really interesting when we broke out into traditional real estate. We knew a ton of escrow officers across the valley because we worked other agent’s short sales. So, some wanted this escrow officer, some wanted this, some wanted this.

Matthew: So we saw the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between, so we knew where the good ones were, and then we were like, “Hm, no.”

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So, our escrow officer that we use … I don’t know, am I allowed to name drop?

Steve: Sure.

Matthew: Carrie Persons over at Magnus Title is amazing. That being said, she ultimately makes it so I don’t have to sit there and check on what’s going on. What is going on? Has a buyer come in to sign? Has a seller come in to sign? Any of that. It’s done. It’s gotten to the point, like a lot of buyer’s agents even on some of our transactions are like, “Hey, I really like this escrow officer. I’ve been looking for somebody. Do you think that she would work with me?”

Matthew: And I’m like, “Well, considering the fact that her job’s to do escrow, yeah, I’m pretty sure she would work with you.”

Steve: She’ll find a way.

Matthew: And you know, the thing is, and especially with a very competitive market, everybody has their favorites, whatever it may be. That being said, there’s a lot of escrow officers that we’ve worked with, like I said, form the short sale side, where if it’s gonna come down to this title company versus that title company is ultimately gonna make or break a deal, you don’t let your clients lose out on that. Same thing with lending partners for that matter as well.

Matthew: But, the cool thing is, a lot of times, all of a sudden the escrow officer will reach out to us and be like, “Holy crap, it’s you guys. We love working with you.” And I’m like, “Yeah, well, you know, it’s been a couple years, but yeah, no, that’s great.”

Steve: Well, and I think part of it too is that when you first started with Mike, and you’ve added [Kari 00:58:47] to the mix and you work with Carrie, I think that you guys were able to provide a tremendous experience for your clients where everything’s smooth and there’s a lot less stress.

Matthew: Well, exactly. And the other thing is, ’cause I know everybody, like I said, has their partner, like this is my partner, this is my number one, this is who I use. One of the things that I’ve definitely learned, Nicole’s known it from day damn one, and been beating me over the head with it and I just, I finally started listening … Not every person is gonna be that fit for that client, and that includes myself.

Matthew: There’s times I’m not the guy. That doesn’t mean Chet’s not the guy or [Coz 00:59:28] isn’t the guy, or Cindy is the gal, or Nicole’s the gal. It’s not a one size fits all industry. It’s not that way. So, it was one of those things where we looked at it and we said, “Okay, who are the people that we trust, that we know are reliable, that we know aren’t gonna make stupid, foolish mistakes, and ultimately provide a good experience all around?”

Matthew: Because when you’re buying a house, the last thing you want to do is when I show up to give you a key, you sit there and you’re like, “This experience sucked. The loan officer was terrible. The escrow officer didn’t even sign me. I had to go meet somebody at a Starbucks in frigging East LA.” You know, that’s not a good experience. You want to provide a good experience.

Matthew: So, that’s why we sat down and looked at it and said, “Okay, you know what? These are our partners. These are who … we can stand behind these referrals.” Because I would like to think, if I’m giving you the name and number of somebody, I’m standing behind that person, and that means I’ve worked with them, that means I’ve seen their production, that means I’ve seen what they do and how they treat their clients, and I think you’re gonna be happy with them. So that’s why we set it up where it’s, okay, these are the partners, let’s go ahead and rock and roll.

Steve: And I think there’s a great lesson in there too with Carrie, you know, we were able to convince her to join Magus, and there’s that, no matter how awesome someone is, there’s a pretty good chance someone’s under appreciating them.

Matthew: Yep.

Steve: So she’s a great reminder for that, and also a reminder, appreciate everyone you got around you.

Matthew: Absolutely.

Steve: Let’s see. So Max has one other question. What is one thing you can tell new entrepreneurs, especially in real estate today, that helps you to stay focused when you get started and to not compare your process to others?

Matthew: Ultimately, at the end of the day, that goes to … oh god, I think it was Albert Einstein said, “If a monkey and a fish are side by side-”

Steve: It’s an Einstein quote? I haven’t heard this before.

Matthew: I think so. Don’t quote me on that though. It’s essentially about standardized testing and how there’s not one proper way to ultimately do anything, there’s really not, except for maybe math.

Matthew: That being said, if you sit there and you judge a fish on its ability to fly, I think it was, or climb a tree, that fish is gonna believe it’s stupid its whole life.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So, at the end of the day, don’t compare yourself to somebody else. Somebody else may have a ton of backing behind them. They may have a lot more tools at their disposal than you do. The most important thing is, do what is in your capability. If you’ve grown to a point where your capabilities are all being utilized and it’s taking 100%, partner with somebody, grow with somebody, do something like that.

Matthew: At the end of the day, that’s what Nicole and I ultimately did. We had grown to max capacity, and I’ll never forget, I sat down with you and you were like, “Okay, by the time you leave this meeting today, you hire Marissa. You have to bring her back as a transaction coordinator, or you and Nicole are capped. You can’t do anything else.” And I’m like, you know, I’ll be honest, I was pissed when I left that meeting. I’m like, “Man, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Matthew: I called Nicole, and we sat there, and man, we were looking over numbers and we’re like, “Oh my god,” and then literally an hour later I called Marissa and we had the conversation, and Marissa called and quit her job … like literally right then, and she’s like, “All right, I’ll start tomorrow.”

Steve: That’s good. So yeah, I think I would agree with Max when he says, “The perfect answer.”

Steve: So, we’re gonna wrap this up, so if someone wants to get a hold of you, what’s your website?

Matthew: I was gonna bust like a totally funny one, but it’s probably not a good idea. Shortsaleguru, G-U-R-U dot com.

Steve: Yeah, and so if you’re a homeowner or struggling, you’re dealing with issues of your payment, so reach out to Matt. If you’re an agent, Matt’s gonna pay you a handsome 30% referral fee-

Matthew: Thirty percent all day-

Steve: … no questions asked.

Matthew: … no questions asked. I don’t care if it’s a 30 grand property or it’s a three million dollar property.

Steve: And it’s true because I sent you those 30 grand properties.

Matthew: Yes, you have.

Steve: And if you’re an investor looking at property with no equity, Matt’s happy to try to get your offer accepted.

Matthew: Yep, that’s what we do, I would say probably four to five times a month we’re reached out by different investors in the valley that are like, “Hey, we want to buy this. There’s no equity at all in any position. Short sale?” And I’m like, “Yeah, sure.” You know, as long as it’s a legitimate reason, which nine times out of 10, if you’re in foreclosure and you’re underwater, there’s usually a legitimate reason behind it.

Steve: Absolutely. So, that’s it, so thanks again, Matt, and for you guys, if you like the show, tell a friend, share this, let people know about it, and till next time, thanks, guys.